King Pine Ski Area — Attraction in Madison

Chris Setchell and the ski school administration are some of the least professional people I have had to deal with. The experience started off with me and my wife not understanding that a season pass was needed for Sunday lessons. We called and explained our mistake and a Wednesday locals class was offered, it was cheaper and no pass was required, everything seemed fine. We asked if she should go to the upcoming Sunday lesson because she had already missed the first Wednesday lesson (it's Friday January 6th) . We were told no and to just show up on Wednesday. When we showed up on Wednesday the class had a requirement to be lift ready, at no point when being offered to switch from a BEGINNERS class to another day, were we told the were new skill requirements for the class. So my daughter was unable to participate in the class due to her lack of skills. Thankfully there was an instructor leaving that agreed to stay and teach my daughter for an hour, so she got something out of the day. After this we went home, got a season pass and just enrolled her back in the Sunday class (it's now Thursday January 12th). Today is Sunday January 15th, which is supposed to be her first real lesson, and we recieved a call asking why she missed her Saturday lesson. We said because she's in the Sunday class and we are going later today. We were told that an email and call were sent out saying it was switched to Saturday. We told them that we never recieved it and asked them to find it in the system. Chris Setchell said he couldn't find it but that it was irrelevant. I start to explain how it is relevant, at this point he starts talking over me and I start talking louder. He then tells me to "be quiet", I repsonded with "are you f*@#ing kidding me?". He then hung up and when I called back a minute later he was "out of the office". The only email we recieved was on January 6th which stated twice in the email that it was a Sunday class, at no point was there any communication about it being switched, that seems relevant to me. Just because Chris is doing a lousy job at his new office and can't keep track of his business or own up to his mistakes, he's just gonna fall back on "it's irrelevant ". At bare minimum a refund should be made for the Saturday January 14th lesson...

Nice mountain and staff. My main issue is the horrible setup for rentals. They still have the indoors section closed. I have been skiing here once in a while for 20+ years. It was better when you would walk inside a warm building and get your rentals. (Like most all other resorts) It was so much better in so many ways. Now you have to stand out in the cold in a very small tent with lots of other people waiting in line in the cold and then they have two small benches for everyone to sit on. You literally walk up to a window like a drive through. Feels so impersonal and like a drive through but standing up. They just shuttle you through like a tollbooth. The ground is so dirty and wet, that it makes it hard to put on snow pants and or snow boots without getting your socks wet and or dirty. Nothing worse then starting the day with cold hands and wet socks. (Can't tie my boots or my kids with gloves on) But it is also just so impersonal and you feel like they are just shuttling you through. Last year we had to get dressed and put the rentals on in a bad snow storm and both my family and I were all sooo cold and ended up being cold all day and it was just a bad experience. When I spoke with a manager before leaving to address my concerns they said that it was only temporary because of Covid. That was clearly not true as they are still doing it and I was told this time it's permanent. Unfortunately this means this will be the last time we visit King Pine. That is unless they decide to open the inside again. I do not recommend King Pine if you will be...

We went to this place almost every year for past several years excluding last year due to the pandemic and it have been a very pleasant experience. So I invited my friend this year to go skiing with me here this year, but it turned out that it is not a very good experience. Both my little kid and my friend's kid are first time skiing, so we booked two semi-private classes for them. The first class is good , they learned how to stop in the carpet area. But we are very unsatisfied about the 2nd class in which we hope the kids can learn how to make turns. We dropped off the kids at the class and when we came back ( the class was supposed to end at least 20 minutes later) and found that the teacher and two kids were sitting there playing the game. It turned out the teacher only taught for 25 mins for this one hour class. We asked why this is happening and was told that it is because the kids did not want to learn. We then talked to the manager and asked what the policy is if the teacher said the kids did not want to have the class. The manger just said the teacher is only 15 years old and has left for the day and she will talk to the teacher tomorrow. My understanding is that the kids like the skiiing very much , the 1st class was going very well , and even after 2nd class, they also skied a lot. At the same time, we paid the full price for the classes and care about the quality of the class but do not want the age of the instructor to...